Fractal Terrains: Old File Changed

crlamb

I'm having a problem with opening an older Fractal Terrains file. It opens but the world is no longer the same -- the land's not in the same place, etc. It still has my river overlay but most of the rivers are just in the sea now.

It's as if it were using a different fractal function or a different world seed, but I have not changed anything, just opened my old file.

I can't remember for sure, but there may have been an update to Fractal Terrains since I last used this file.

Has anyone else has this problem? Is there a way to recover my old file?

I've tried loading other older files and they seem to work OK. I'm not sure if I had some kind of unusual settings in this particular file.

Master TMO

I've noticed the same thing on occasion, and my guess is that something minor has changed in the background, and since the fractals are built using lots of repetitive math functions off a random number seed that this will change the final output, often drastically. I wouldn't be surprised if even opening the file on a different computer would make for a different final map, although I've never tested it to be sure. It's the butterfly wing flap of doom.

Every time I get a new update to the software, I install it into a new directory rather than overwriting the old version. That way if I need to go back to an older map or the new version is buggy, I can just run the older version of software and it will be fine.

jslayton

One setting that will cause problems is the "version 1.23 compatibility" option. Early version of FT had a threading bug that would cause worlds to randomly generate incorrect values. Worse than that, the values were dependent on machine speed, number of cores, types of software running, and many other things. FT Pro fixed this problem, but the compatibility flag remained just in case. Changes in hardware (like an upgrade) also cause the problem to manifest. If you accidentally checked the 1.23 compabitility box, then the original world is likely unrecoverable.

Terraformer_Author

crlamb - you might want to upgrade your version of FT PRO by going to the product registration pages, and registering your product - and then go to the "downloads" tab on your registration pages and download the update. If you've already done that - then disregard.

If you have saved a world - and then you have, say - burned it onto a disk and reprogged your puter - or if you have moved your world to another file location - then you might have the same problem because your world is tied to AN EXACT FILE LOCATION ADDRESS, such that - for example -if your world was located at C: /desktop/FT WORLDS, and you copy it to a disk or an encrypted packet, or generally anywhere else other than where it's suppose to be, and then erase / delete the original and attempt to open the copy in another file location - then sometimes your worlds will turn to goo until you move the file back to it's precise address - and sometimes even that won't work if your puter settings have changed, or if you've done a reinstall of FT PRO.

It's happened like that with me before. There is a way to make your worlds mobile to where you can move them anywhere (a trick to it) - but I've forgotten it right now. I'll remember it eventually but reminders are welcome. I'm at that age when your memory, and your ability at recall starts to get a bit fuzzy. I need a mental RAM upgrade, lol.

Master TMO

TA might be thinking of the Burn To Surface command. I've never used it, but if I understand it correctly it converts all the fractal formulas and calcs into a flat elevation file.

crlamb

I think I have reorganized my file structure.

I did remove my FT install and redownload it and the updates and reinstall everything, but it didn't seem to help.

I may have been using a beta version of an update. I had some problems with rivers about this time and I asked the tech support for help and I think they gave me a link to an update that fixed it but wasn't generally available yet. It sounds like the worlds are so dependent on the program version that any little tweak like that could do it in.

I'm probably out of luck. It's no big deal, I can work with the maps and images I'd already exported. Just wanted to back to the source file and try something. Thanks for your suggestions.